Six Day War: remembered
Updated on 05 June 2007
Some 40 years after the start of the Six Day War, the short but decisive conflict defines relations among the Arab world, Israel and the US to this very day.
After six days of fighting, Israel's forces had captured the entire Sinai peninsula, the West Bank and Golan Heights. At conflict's end, the territory under Israeli control was four times larger than it had been a week earlier.
Background
Fought between Israel and its Arab neighbours Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, it was the third conflict between between the countries.
The first, in 1948 straight after the creation of Israel, left East Jerusalem and the River Jordan's West Bank under Jordanian control and the coastal Gaza Strip under Egyptian control.
The second, in 1956, Israel joined Britain and France and invaded the Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai peninsula to wrest control from the newly nationalised Suez Canal.
Israel was then forced to leave the Sinai the following year and a United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was deployed.
No Arab nation recognised Israel and the antipathy the Arab world felt towards the Jewish state was palpable as tensions that had been building up for two decades, were starting to come to a head.
In the months before June 1967, Egypt expelled the UN force from the Sinai Peninsula, increased its military activity near the border, blockaded the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships, and called for unified Arab action against Israel.
President Nasser was finding increasing pressure at home in Egypt from an electorate disillusioned with his socialist policies, and conflict with Israel would bolster his position and standing in the Arab world.
He was keen to unite the Arab world and spoke of "the destruction of Israel", while Israel feared it could be wiped out. Tensions continued to rise and newly-formed Palestinian militant groups began cross-border raids with Arab support.
In May 1967, President Nasser demanded the removal of Unef troops from the Sinai, closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and signed a defence pact with Jordan.
The war started when Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt's airforce fearing an imminent invasion by its neighbour. Jordan then attacked western Jerusalem and Netanya and the fight was on.
Day 1: June 5
Israel launched Operation Focus and the first wave of air attacks against 11 Egyptian airfields, destroying dozens of planes parked on the runways.
Egypt had by far the largest and the most modern of all the Arab air forces - 450 combat aircraft, all of them Soviet-built and relatively new.
But the Israeli attack destroyed over 300 Egyptian aircraft. The Israelis lost 19 of their planes, mostly operational losses. The attack guaranteed Israeli air superiority for the rest of the war.
Day 2: June 6
IAF jets gave air support for advancing ground troops in the Sinai, at Umm Katef, and the Gaza Strip.
Israel's 55th Parachute Brigade was diverted from the Sinai front to bolster defences against the Jordanian army around Jerusalem and there is fierce fighting between Israeli and Jordanian troops at Ammunition Hill in the northern part of East Jerusalem, which is eventually taken by the Israelis.
The fighting left 106 Jordanians and 37 Israelis dead.
Then, Syria launched its only ground offensive of the war but this was halted by the settlement's militia and finished off by Israeli jets.
Egyptian Field Marshal Abd al-Hakim Amer ordered a general retreat, telling his army to dump its heavy weapons and retreat to the Suez Canal.
The move led to the death or capture of thousands of its soldiers. By nightfall, IDF forces had taken control of Gaza from Egypt and Hebron and Bethlehem from Jordan.
Day 3: June 7
Soldiers arrive at the wailing wall
IDF troops moved into the West Bank after the Jordanian army's retreat. Israeli jets bombed Jordanian ground forces in Jerusalem and Jericho which is taken by Israel by the end of the day.
Jordan's governor in Jerusalem signed an official surrender. Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin arrived in the city to celebrate Israeli control of the area containing the holy site.
Thousands of Jews also flock to the Western Wall while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the West Bank flee their homes to Jordan proper.
In the Sinai peninsula, the first Israeli forces reached the Suez Canal in the early hours, but pull back and ambush the retreating Egyptian army at the Mitla and Giddi passes.
In southern Sinai, Israeli forces attacked and captured the strategic Egyptian fortress of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Day 4: June 8
Israeli generals, including Ariel Sharon defeated the Egyptian forces in a three-pronged attack on the Sinai.
The Egyptians had a huge force of 80,000 soldiers and 1,000 tanks but they were vulnerable to land and air attack.
By the end of the day, Israeli troops take up positions along the eastern bank of the Suez Canal forcing Egypt's hand to sign a ceasefire.
However, an Israeli attack on the US ship USS Liberty caused controversy with 34 Americans killed and 172 injured. Israel said it mistook the ship for Egyptian.
Day 5: June 9
The Egyptian president announced his resignation, which is rejected by the National Assembly.
Israel then turned its attention to the Syrian front. A UN ceasefire deal accepted by Syria is followed by Israel bombing Damascus and then the IAF launch an assault on the Golan Heights.
Day 6: June 10
Israeli captured Quneitra, 40 miles from Damascus as Syrian defences collapsed. By 2.30pm, Israeli forces have taken the Golan Heights.
Syrian units take up defensive positions along the southern approaches to Damascus, but Israel orders its troops to stop its advance. A UN ceasefire comes into effect at 6.30pm.
Aftermath
Israel's reward, apart from victory itself, was a new strategic relationship with the United States.
The humiliating defeat was felt throughout the Arab world. Apart from the West Bank, which had significance for Orthodox Jews, and the holy city of Jerusalem, Israel's attacks never had territorial expansion as its principle aim.
With a nation now four times the size it was a week prior, Israel hoped to use the land gains as bargaining chips for future security agreements.
It took a further decade for Israel to be recognised by an Arab nation, when Egypt 's next president Sadat signed the Camp David accords, a move that resulted in his assassination.
In 1994, Jordan signed a peace deal with Israel, however apart from Morocco, no Arab nation recognises Israel's right to exist.
Four days after the war ended, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk warned that if Israel held on to the West Bank, Palestinians would spend the rest of the century trying to get it back.
Forty years on, Israel has settled around 450,000 people on land occupied in 1967, in defiance of everyone's interpretation of international law except its own. The fate of the Palestinians informs foreign policy and relations between the Arab world and the west to this day.
